Can Wal-Mart Do 'Local'?

Locally-grown produce is offered for sale at a Walmart store in Idaho.

Idaho's Gould says having Wal-Mart as a customer "has encouraged farmers to plant more of what's in demand." One farmer in the state saw a doubling of his asparagus sales and a 30 percent increase in organic grape sales over the past two years. Gould says the revitalization in farming is great for the region's economy. "We haven't had that kind of demand until recently," she says.

But Doug Hart, a pricing expert at the consulting firm BDO Seidman, questions how the giant retailer's growing presence will affect local markets. "Wal-Mart has already changed the marketing landscape [by buying so much from China]. Now they could change the landscape of farms," he says. With Wal-Mart as a megacustomer, Hart adds, the pressure will be on farmers to grow a smaller variety of crops and more of the one thing that the giant retailer wants. This, Hart says, could "absolutely" be another unfortunate symptom of the "Wal-Mart effect."

Corrected on 7/28/08: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Brian Girouard, a Capgemini vice president.

Reader Comments Read all comments (9)

Add Your Thoughts

Comment Name State Select One AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY International Email

Please enter the two words below into the text field underneath the image.

Incorrect please try again

Enter the words above: Enter the numbers you hear:

Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.